Bram Stoker's Dracula (Good blog entries never die)
You’re Francis Ford Coppala, and it’s the early 1990’s and you’ve not won an Oscar in years. What do you do? Make a version of Dracula. What will I call it? Bram Stoker’s Dracula. That way no one will mistake it for the 5 million over Dracula and Dracula knock offs out there. (My favorite, Blacula).
“I’m FFC and I’m going to start a trend in movies where the author’s name gets tacked on to give it academic cred.” This led the way for William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, a true cinematic accomplishment. Of course the true horror fan knows that FFC stole this from Roger Corman and all those Edgar Allen Poe movies. Corman would take EAP’s name of a movie that had nothing to do with one of his stories.
So now to the summary.
Coppalla’s film is more true to the original text that the Tod Browning 1931 film. There are exceptions. Like all good Hollywood movies, a love triangle had to be put into the movie. This one involves Mina, Jonathan, and Dracula himself. Of course Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula’s wife who killed herself. Dracula is in this film Vlad the Impaler, using what many people thought Stoker used as his inspiration and tying the two together forever.
The film has a very good performance of Dracula by Gary Oldman. Oldman made one of the best Dracula’s ever. His has an ability to play a very evil character and his seems to take glee in his portrayal of the villain. Most of the other characters left a lot to be desired. Needless to say any movie that puts Keanu Reeves into a starring role risks the bad review. The man cannot act his way out of wet paper bag that may or may not be part of the matrix. Anthony Hopkins could have done a better job as Van Helsing, but he did seem to enjoy the job all the same. I think he should have play Van Helsing like Hannible Lector.
Despite the flaws in the story line, this version of Dracula does a fairly good job of keeping true to the text. It remains a period piece something other versions did not do. The special effects are better, and there is a superb performance by Oldman as Dracula. He is more memorable than even Legosi in the role. All in all Bram Stokers Dracula is worth the time to watch if for nothing else the wonderful delivery of my favorite line from the movies: “For I have already eaten, and I never drink, wine.”
